Following an inspiring final round of live pitches, we are thrilled to announce the winner and runners-up of the sixth annual Africa Business Concept Challenge (ABCC)! The top six teams impressed our final judges with creative, impactful, and viable business concepts aimed at improving economic opportunity, sustainability, and community well-being across Africa. A tremendous thank you to the Challenge’s sponsors, Stanford Seed and SUNY Polytechnic Institute, as well as our distinguished final judges, for supporting this year’s Challenge! After a highly competitive final stage of live pitches and judging, we are excited to congratulate the winner and runners-up listed below.
Winners
Team: BiliBright
Team Members: Andrew Mudhasi*, Patricia Nagawa, Siya Jain, Tessa Weaver
Faculty Mentor: Robert Ssekitoleko
Universities: Makerere University (Uganda) and Duke University (United States)
Neonatal jaundice is one of the most preventable causes of infant death and disability in sub-Saharan Africa. Jaundice affects nearly 1.9 million infants globally each year. In Uganda alone, where 1.7 million births occur annually, most health facilities lack the diagnostic tools they need — existing options like blood tests require lab infrastructure that’s impractical in low-resource settings, while current portable bilirubinometers are expensive and proven less accurate on darker-skinned infants. Bilibright is a low-cost, non-invasive handheld device that measures bilirubin levels across all skin tones in under 30 seconds, displaying severity and recommended days of phototherapy directly on screen. Built from locally available components for affordability, it’s designed for frontline clinicians and requires minimal training to use.
*Team leader
Team: SmarVe
Team Members: Brian Mwololo*, Kimunila Zhakata, Umar Kamani
Faculty Mentor: Tineyi Madungwe
University: African Leadership College Of Higher Education (Mauritius)
SmarVe tackles the plastic bottle recycling crisis in Mauritius through a smart, incentive-driven circular economy system. Mauritius sells roughly 100 million plastic bottles annually but recovers fewer than half, with none of its existing collection points located at points of sale or offering a reward mechanism. SmarVe is a smart vending machine that doubles as a return point: customers buy a drink, return the empty bottle on the spot, and receive a 15% discount on their next purchase. The machines track inventory and returns in real time, automatically notifying local partner collectors when bins are full, eliminating the need for a company-owned fleet or depot. The concept has been validated at a test site in Mauritius, achieving a 47.8% return rate even before activating the discount incentive — beating the national average of 43% — and projects a 62% return rate once incentives go live.
Team: AfriGas
Team Members: Matthew De Barros*, Zakiyya Mather, Jaco Du Preez, Kgothatso Baloyi, Dayle Abel
University: Gordon Institute of Business Science (South Africa)
In municipality-controlled informal settlements in South Africa, many households use modern power for low-energy needs but revert to cheaper, accessible but highly polluting traditional fuels for energy-intensive tasks such as cooking meals, due to unreliable and expensive electricity. This creates health hazards, environmental degradation, and economic burden on low-income households. AfriGas is a rental-based Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) distribution model designed specifically to address this challenge. It transitions clean cooking from an unattainable capital purchase into an affordable, recurring utility service. The model eliminates the primary barrier to clean energy, high upfront equipment costs, by offering a comprehensive equipment and fuel package on a subscription basis.